by Adam Cairney
Chapter 5.
Panting, gasping for air, they eventually stopped. Molly slumped against the wall and slid down it to sit on the floor, trying to catch her breath.
"What...What the hell is going on Elijah?! Did you see what happened? I feel...Feel like I'm going crazy. I mean..." She trailed off, unable to express herself. Elijah felt the same way. He knew how to create fire from his hands, and had seen people move things with their mind. What they had both witnessed back in that meeting room though, was something else entirely. The only thing he could think of was that it was some very dark magic indeed.
"Come on, we have to keep moving." Elijah panted. They had managed to traverse the corridors back out of the Cumulous and up to the surface, and then to the nearest set of tunnels that led to where one of the cable carriage stations was, and were very nearly there. In the short time they had been down below ground the cloud had changed completely. They hadn’t seen a single other soul, either in the cumulous building or anywhere in the expansive park. The place was completely bare, deserted. Whatever Azrael had been waiting to do, it was a pretty safe bet that he had done it now.
"We have to get out of here before we can’t get to the carriage stations. I’m willing to bet Azrael is going to try and stop us leaving. If he manages to do that, we're stuck here. And then things will get really ugly." He pulled her up and they carried on. Something was most definitely wrong. The whole place somehow felt…sick now. Colours seemed washed out, it seemed like the plants up above were dying already, and the sconces that gave off their light down in the tunnels now gave off sickly, pallid shades of colour instead of the vibrant rainbow they did before.
They jogged down the last stretch of tunnel, and Molly was about to keep going when Elijah stuck his arm out to stop her from going round the last corner. Putting his finger to his lips to indicate silence, he very slowly leaned around the corner to see if there was anyone at the station. But there was nothing. No passengers, no scholars or apprentices, no guards whatsoever. What the hell was going on? He turned back to Molly and nodded, and as he did he caught a glimpse of the small cut she's gotten on her arm. It had turned a hideous shade of purple, and he knew what had happened straight away. Poison. He held Molly's chin and turned her face towards his. He hadn't noticed in the semi-gloom of the tunnels before, but she was sweating profusely, and had large black rings under her eyes too. She looked exhausted.
"Why didn't you say anything?" He hissed, as annoyed at her as he was worried.
"I'm sorry, I...we just have to get out of here. We can get back to my house, my workshop. I have things there that I can ta-" She never finished the sentence. Somewhere further back in the tunnels came an echoing, inhuman scream that instantly made all the hairs on their arms and neck stand on end. Time to go.
Without another word they broke into a run again. Elijah instructed Molly to get into the carriage and wait for him, while he ran to the control booth and began readying the carriage to descend. All he had to do was pull the right lever, set the controls to head back to the city, and he was done. The cable carriage jerked and jolted to life as the giant gears and mechanisms that controlled it squealed in protest as they rumbled to life and began to send it downwards. Elijah raised his hands towards the control panel and let loose with a blast of fire, incinerating the panel. It was a one way trip down.
With that done he turned from the smoldering remains, ready to run and join Molly, and that was when he saw the last thing he had wanted to see. As he spun round, several academics had already reached the end of the tunnel, and were now advancing towards him menacingly. At least he assumed they had been scholars, academics of some sort. These ones didn't seem as bothered as the ones in the meeting room had been about hiding their faces, and were just as blackened and greasy looking as the ones in the meeting room had been, maybe more so.
The skin was peeling off of them at an alarming rate. Their limbs stuck out at crazy angles, almost as if they couldn't be controlled, and they had turned an awful shade of purple. The last thing Elijah noted was that they all had large black rings below their eyes. Molly! It had to have been the same thing they had poisoned her with. There was no time to lose or waste fighting these poor men. Elijah ignored them, and went to run to the doors of the car and throw himself inside before it was too late.
"Hurry Elijah!" Molly cried as he prepared to jump, and then a shriek. "Look out!"
Elijah turned just as a spear came hurtling towards him. He sidestepped just in time and the spear went sailing down to the streets below. He very nearly lost his balance, teetered right on the edge of the platform for a second and regained his balance. The doors were almost too far away to jump to though, and the awful things that had once been men were almost upon him. Only one choice, one thing left to do. Elijah, with an almighty effort, jumped as far as he could, desperately stretching out for the cable carriage. It loomed in front of him, growing larger. Suddenly he was falling though. The carriage suddenly moving upwards, away and out of his grasp. He wasn't going to make it...
But somehow he did, with a solid thump he hit the side of the car, his hands barely managing to get a grip on the rail that ran around the top of it. He grunted as the impact drove all the air out of him. He had made it, just barely, and those monsters, men, whatever they were, were behind him now. Or so he thought. As he hung, catching his breath, there was another horrific shriek, followed by two massive jolts to the car and a scream. Lifting himself up, Elijah saw his worst fears confirmed. Somehow two of them had made the impossible jump and were now standing on the roof of the car, advancing on him, relentless. One of the creatures had not been so lucky, and was plummeting to its death. With all his might he heaved his shoulder up onto the rail and placed his hand on the roof.
"Molly! Could use a little help here!" He yelled as the two monsters, still brandishing their weapons, advanced on him. No answer. She was most likely unconscious by this point. Fine, he would take care of this, and then take care of her.
"Come on then!" He growled at the first one as he finished pulling himself up onto the roof. As he did, the academic stepped forwards, to the middle of the carriage, and gave a couple of swings of his long curved dagger, the same as the one Molly had been cut with. In the open air, with the natural sunlight overhead now Elijah could clearly see that it was coated with some kind of poison. Without waiting, and with all his effort, he conducted the ether around him, placing one hand down on the roof and suddenly the roof of the carriage itself started to glow with an incredible heat. The monster saw it happening, and tried to get away from the heat and the pain. As he tried first to step back he wasn’t watching where he was going, and the curvature of the roof threw him off balance just enough. He tried to regain his balance. It was no use though, and he tumbled over the edge, eerily silent unlike the other one that had fallen, his gaze still fixed on Elijah.
The other one had not been so unfortunate. He still stood on the roof of the cable car, seemingly completely unfazed by the heat. Elijah could smell his feet burning, it turned his stomach. He was edging towards Elijah, brandishing his own blade. No matter, fire could still take care of this one, Elijah thought to himself. Once again he concentrated, conducting with all his will. Nothing happened though, and that was when it hit him. Utter exhaustion. He had nothing left, he couldn't conduct anything. Desperately, frantically, he tried to think of a way out of the situation. The scholar drew closer, and was almost close enough to attack him. There was nothing he could do!
The academic took one last shuffle forwards and was suddenly in reach. Elijah shut his eyes, realizing that this was it, this was how it ended. The man raised the knife, ready to swing down, when suddenly there was a loud creaking, groaning sound from underneath him. Before either he or Elijah could react the roof collapsed, sending the thing tumbling into the carriage below, right where Molly was! Elijah, as quickly as he could, ran over to and looked down into the newly created hole, dreading what he might see. It was not what he h
ad expected. Molly was laying on the floor, with the remnants of two smashed vials nearby. There was a hole, melted into the floor of the carriage, and one on the ceiling. The creature had fallen straight through, it had never even had a chance to attack her. He smiled. Thank god she had had the foresight to destroy the portion of floor first! He knelt down next to her.
Elijah clambered down into the carriage itself. "You saved me Molly. You saved me." He hugged her close, and then laid her back down onto the carpeted floor again. "How are you feeling? Are you alright?"
She smiled weakly up at him. "I've...felt better. I'm glad I packed the corrosive. Good thing too, right? Hey listen...you need...you need to get me to Noah. He can...Hel-" She couldn't finish the sentence, and started choking and coughing. She was an awful colour, almost as purple as those things had been back on the cloud.
"Molly please, you have to stay awake. MOLLY!" Elijah shouted in her face, but it was no good. Molly's world faded to black.